Infinite Awakening: 10,000x EXP Converter!

If you have unlocked the previous Chapter please go back to it. I added some more words. my editor contacted me that the premium Chapter as to be a minimum of a 1000 words. Thanks for reading 🙏

Crawler Alley was a broken sewer pipe three floors below the Ironjaw Rat area. Tobias Finch’s hand-drawn map marked it with a red X and the words ”big angry bugs, bring friends.”

Alvian brought no friends. He brought a sword that could throw acid wind blades fifteen meters.

The tunnel grew narrower as he walked down. The cracked concrete walls turned into old brick from before the Cataclysm, wet with glowing moisture. The floating energy here was thicker than in the upper Warrens, pressing against his skin.

The first Sludge Crawler he saw was bigger than he expected. It was as big as a large dog, its body covered in overlapping plates of hard brown-green armor that shined wetly in the dim light. Two jaws as long as his arm snapped together with a sound like breaking bone. Its single big yellow eye, right in the middle of its head, turned toward him.

Behind it, two more crawlers came out of holes in the broken brick wall. Three Rank 2 monsters. Each one was worth 25 base EXP, and their cores were worth twenty to thirty credits on the black market.

Two weeks ago, fighting three of these at once would have been a hard, bloody fight. He would have used Clearwater Palm to soften their armor, used his trench knife to find weak spots, and spent hours using careful tactics.

The lead Crawler charged. Its jaws snapped open, spitting a line of burning acid that hissed against the tunnel floor.

Alvian did not dodge. He did not step aside. He drew his sword and flicked his wrist in a simple side swing.

WHOOSH.

A silver curve of light launched from the sword edge. It crossed the ten-meter gap in less than a second. The lead Crawler stopped mid-run.

The monster split cleanly down the middle.

Shell, meat, and organs—all cut in half with perfect accuracy. The cut edges smoked with Clearwater acid, melting the exposed flesh. The two halves tumbled to the ground, legs still twitching.

The second and third Crawlers froze. Their instincts told them to run. But before they could turn around, Alvian swung twice more.

WHOOSH. WHOOSH.

Two more silver curves of light. Two more Crawlers cut in half. Six pieces lay on the tunnel floor. The acid on the edges hissed and bubbled, melting their hard shells into grey mush.

Total fight time: four seconds.

[DING!]

[3× Sludge Crawler kills registered.]

[Base EXP: 75 (25 each).]

[Rolling primary wheel individually...]

[Kill 1: 12x. EXP: 300.]

[Kill 2: 8x. EXP: 200. KP +1.]

[Kill 3: 22x. EXP: 550.]

[Total EXP gained: 1,050.]

Alvian looked at the dead monsters. Three Rank 2 creatures defeated in four seconds without taking a single step.

’Fifteen meters of range,’ he thought, flexing his fingers. ’No need to get close. No need for hand-to-hand combat. No need to take damage. Just swing and watch them split.’

He took the cores from the cut bodies. Three cores, each one a hard glowing crystal inside the monster’s head. He put them in his pocket and walked deeper into Crawler Alley.

Over the next two hours, he killed seventeen more Crawlers. He used Severing Sword Aura for groups and normal sword swings for single targets to test both styles. The proficiency wheel spun with every swing, and he let each roll finish one by one to gather data on the new wheel’s chances.

[Combat Summary: 20 Sludge Crawler kills]

[Roll distribution: 14 Common (1x-10x), 5 Uncommon (11x-50x), 1 Rare (120x)]

[Total EXP gained: ~4,200]

[KP gained: 6 (from sub-5x rolls)]

The secondary wheel gave similar results to the main one, maybe slightly favoring Common rolls. But the real test was the damage output. Every Severing Sword Aura blade cut through a Rank 2 monster instantly. The squeezed air carried his Clearwater energy, meaning every cut also delivered melting acid. The Crawlers’ heavy armor, made to block physical hits, was useless against acid that dissolved chemical bonds. The acid did not care about hard armor; it destroyed everything it touched.

’Essence is the main problem,’ Alvian thought, checking his remaining energy. He had started with 16 Essence, and each air blade cost 5 Essence. Three swings emptied his pool completely. He had been swapping between Severing Sword Aura and regular swings to save energy, but regular swings felt weak now. It felt like using a small handgun after trying a rocket launcher.

He spent all 4,200 EXP on Essence.

[Essence: 16 → 22]

The extra energy hit his body like a warm wave of water flowing through his veins. His Talent paths expanded slightly to hold the larger energy reserve. Now he could fire four air blades instead of three. It was better, but still not enough for long fights.

The biggest discovery happened when he decided to try a test. He had been using Severing Sword Aura and Clearwater Coating separately. What would happen if he combined them?

He used Clearwater Coating on his blade. The layer of acid hissed and settled into the metal steel. Then he swung.

WHOOSH.

The silver curve of light that launched from the coated blade looked different. It was thicker and sharper. And when it hit the stone pillar at the end of the tunnel, the result was much stronger.

Instead of just a clean cut, the pillar began to melt outward from where the strike hit. The acid from the Coating had traveled along with the air blade and spread across the entire cut surface. What started as a slash turned into a fast-spreading wave of melting rock.

The acid splash range was three times larger than a normal air blade. The cut edges bubbled and smoked for twenty-five seconds before the acid finally stopped.

[DING!]

[Clearwater Coating + Severing Sword Aura synergy detected!]

[Corrosion radius increased by 200%]

[Effect duration: 25 seconds (inherits Coating duration)]

[Note: Chemistry and wind make excellent dance partners. The System approves.]

Alvian stared at the melting pillar. The air blade carried not only squeezed air, but also the active acid from the Coating. When it hit, it spread acid over the whole cut, turning a clean slice into a wide area of melting destruction.

Against an armored enemy, this would be deadly. The first cut would break the armor, and the acid would melt deeper into their defenses until nothing was left.

’With 22 Essence, I can keep Coating active and fire three combined air blades,’ he calculated. ’Three blades, each with three times the acid range. That’s enough to kill most Rank 2 monsters and heavily damage Rank 3.’

He checked his full status profile:

┌──────[ Profile]──────┐

│ [Host]: Alvian Vance

│ [Level]: 22 (Mortal Tier)

│ [Talent]: Clearwater [E-Rank, D-Rank effective]

│ [Skills]: Clearwater Palm [D-Rank, ~85% to cap]

│ Clearwater Coating [E-Rank]

│ Severing Sword Aura [A-Rank]

│ [Weapon Mastery]: Short-Sword [MAXIMUM, evolved]

│ [STR]: 28 | [AGI]: 27 | [VIT]: 39

│ [INT]: 16 | [Essence]: 22

│ [Karma Points]: 8

│ [EXP Bank]: ~50,000 / ∞

│ [System Version]: 2.0 (Proficiency Tier)

└─────────────────┘

Two hours. Twenty Crawlers. Twenty cores worth around five hundred credits on the black market. And a fighting technique that could melt anything weaker than Rank 3 armor in seconds.

The fear was completely gone. Two weeks ago, he had fought giant beetles with bloody hands, praying his rusty knife would not break. Now he cut Crawlers in half with a simple flick of his wrist, watching them split like soft fruit.

What replaced his fear was not pride, but cold focus. He saw violence as a tool, not a test. The Crawlers were no longer dangerous enemies; they were resources. Base EXP waiting to be multiplied. Cores waiting to be harvested. Skill proficiency waiting to be farmed.

’Essence is my bottleneck,’ he thought, wiping monster blood from his blade. ’An A-Rank Skill powered by E-Rank energy reserves. I need higher Essence to fight longer. I need deeper Warren runs for higher base EXP. I need bigger multipliers for faster growth.’

He put the last core away and walked back toward the surface. The tunnel was quiet, its monster population wiped clean. The walls still smoked with left-over acid—a sign of the new hunter in the area.

Morning was coming. The Undercity air fans would soon start pushing stale air through Level 13. Helen Croft’s office was waiting. And somewhere above, the Magnus family was watching.

He climbed toward the surface, leaving Crawler Alley silent and empty behind him. The melted pillar at the end of the tunnel was still smoking—a symbol of acid winning against solid stone.